Today in History

Today is Sunday, Nov. 25, the 329th day of 2018. There are 36 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Nov. 25, 1963, the body of President John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery; his widow, Jacqueline, lighted an “eternal flame” at the gravesite.

On this date:

In 1783, the British evacuated New York during the Revolutionary War.

In 1864, during the Civil War, Confederate agents set a series of arson fires in New York; the blazes were quickly extinguished.

In 1915, a new version of the Ku Klux Klan, targeting blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants, was founded by William Joseph Simmons.

In 1940, the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker made his debut in the animated short “Knock Knock.”

In 1947, movie studio executives meeting in New York agreed to blacklist the “Hollywood Ten” who’d been cited for contempt of Congress the day before.

In 1961, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise, was commissioned.

In 1986, the Iran-Contra affair erupted as President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese revealed that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

In 1987, Harold Washington, the first black mayor of Chicago, died in office at age 65.

In 1999, Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old Cuban boy, was rescued by a pair of sport fishermen off the coast of Florida, setting off an international custody battle.

In 2001, as the war in Afghanistan entered its eighth week, CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann was killed during a prison uprising in Mazar-e-Sharif, becoming America’s first combat casualty of the conflict.

In 2002, President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security, and appointed Tom Ridge to be its head.

In 2016, Fidel Castro, who led his rebels to victorious revolution in 1959, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half-century of rule in Cuba, died at age 90.

Ten years ago: President-elect Barack Obama said economic recovery efforts would trump deficit concerns after he took office in January; at the same time, Obama pledged a “page-by-page, line-by-line” budget review to root out unneeded spending. Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick pleaded guilty to a Virginia dogfighting charge, receiving a three-year suspended sentence.

Five years ago: Pushing back against critics, President Barack Obama forcefully defended the temporary agreement to freeze Iran’s disputed nuclear program, declaring that the United States “cannot close the door on diplomacy.” Prosecutors closed their yearlong investigation into the shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that claimed the lives of 26 victims; their report said the motive of gunman Adam Lanza, who also killed his mother and himself, might never be known.

One year ago: On what was designated as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, President Emmanuel Macron launched an initiate to combat violence and harassment against women in France and change what he described as France’s sexist culture. A volcano on the Indonesian island of Bali rumbled to life, temporarily disrupting some international flights to the popular tourist destination. Veteran Hollywood actor Rance Howard, the father of director Ron Howard, died at the age of 89.